Processed Food May Shorten Life
Deeply processed food is very harmful to health. Regularly eating foods that contain added sugars, unhealthy fats, and various additives can lead to obesity and increase the risk of inflammation and metabolic problems in the body.
A few bags of snacks, a few biscuits, and a few packs of beef jerky… are the most common things for everyone. These foods can not only satisfy cravings, but also relieve hunger, and are simply necessary for home, work, study, and travel.
However, a decade-long health study shows that eating highly processed foods often shortens lifespan. The study, published on Feb. 11, 2019, in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine began in 2009 and had 44,551 participants who provided reporting data. Of these, 73 percent were women, and the average age at the start of the study was 56.7 years.
As can be seen from the data report, highly processed foods accounted for nearly 34 percent of the participants’ average daily calorie intake. Researchers have found that when processed food accounts for a large proportion of the daily diet, it increases the risk of acute and chronic diseases such as cancer, and even premature death.
What is Processed Food?
The study defined processed foods using the NOVA food classification system and divided foods into four categories:
- Group 1 foods are unprocessed or minimally processed foods obtained directly from animals and plants, such as fresh fruit and milk.
- Group 2 foods are substances that come from unprocessed foods, such as fats, butter, sugar, and salt.
- Group 3 foods are “simply processed,” made by adding sugar, salt, oil, and other ingredients to unprocessed or minimally processed foods, such as canned fruit and freshly baked bread.
- Group 4 foods are “deeply processed” and include sodas, ice cream, energy bars, instant noodles, and hot dogs.
During food processing, salt, sugar, fat, and various additives are often added and may remove vitamins, minerals, and fiber that are naturally present in these foods. Therefore, in addition to being addictive, processed foods, especially highly processed foods, have no nutritional value for the human body, and may also cause various health problems. Researchers recommend eating less processed foods and more whole foods.
What are the Dangers of Processed Food?
1. Obesity
In the process of food processing, to improve the taste, more sugar is often added. If you don’t see the word “sugar” on the label, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Sugar is “disguised” as up to 50 different identities are added to foods.
The most common names are corn syrup, fructose, glucose, sucrose, malt or maltose, honey, molasses or nectar, and many more.
Sugar of any type does not provide your body with any nutrients. What’s more, sugar triggers pleasure and pleasure in the brain, making you addicted to sweets. That’s why so many people can’t resist cravings for highly processed foods and snacks, even when they know they’re junk.
2. Metabolic syndrome includes cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes
Obesity is not enough, what’s more, processed food can trigger metabolic syndrome and increase the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. If you have three or more of these five symptoms, you may have metabolic syndrome.
- Increased waist circumference, also known as an “apple-shaped” body shape with abdominal obesity;
- Elevated triglycerides, or the need for medicines to lower triglycerides;
- Low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) levels, or medical treatment due to low HDL levels;
- High blood pressure, or the need for medicines to treat high blood pressure;
- High fasting blood sugar, or need medication for high fasting blood sugar.
Although sugar is a source of energy your body needs, if you consume too much, the sugar you can’t consume is converted into fat. At the same time, as the concentration of sugar in the blood increases, more insulin is needed to stabilize blood sugar levels. Long-term high blood sugar and high insulin can lead to insulin resistance and increase the level of triglycerides in the blood. This series of metabolic disorders can increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease.
3. Inflammatory bowel disease
The culprit this time is a chemical additive called an emulsifier, which is used to extend shelf life and help maintain the food’s shape or texture. They are found in nearly all processed foods, including bread, peanut butter, cakes, salad dressings, sauces, yogurt, puddings, processed cheese, ice cream, and other desserts.
Surprisingly, the emulsifiers added to food are similar to the emulsifiers in our usual soaps or detergents. That’s because the main role of emulsifiers is to keep water and oil mixed, whether it’s to get rid of dirt, or to keep different food ingredients together.
This emulsifier disrupts the intestinal lining, similar to the decontamination action of detergents, which can lead to an inflammatory response that increases the risk of intestinal and other diseases.
4. Autoimmune diseases
Autoimmune diseases are triggered when the body’s immune system goes haywire and starts attacking its cells. There are more than 100 known autoimmune diseases, but the most common are type 1 diabetes, lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.
In these diseases, the immune system confuses healthy cells as unhealthy and mounts a protective attack on them. 70% of the human body’s immunity comes from the gut. The lining of the gut is lined with a layer of specialized cells called epithelial cells, which connect to form a protective membrane that wards off bacteria, toxins, and other harmful pathogens.
But when these tight-knit barriers are disrupted, it weakens the body’s defenses and allows harmful antigens to penetrate the body by increasing intestinal permeability. This is called “leaky gut,” and it’s a hot topic in medical research right now.
Seven additives in processed foods disrupt the natural barrier in the gut, increasing gut permeability, opening the door for toxins to poison the body, and increasing the risk of autoimmune disease, research shows.
The seven additives are glucose, salt, emulsifier, organic solvent, gluten, microbial transglutaminase, and nanoparticles.
5. Colon or rectal cancer
Highly processed foods also increase the risk of bowel cancer. The source of the risk is processed meat, including luncheon meat, bacon, sausage, hot dogs, beef jerky, or any other chemically processed meat product.
These foods will add preservatives, coloring agents, flavoring agents, etc. during processing and cooking, and all these chemical additives will increase the risk of cancer.
6. Anxiety and depression
This is another health risk to be wary of. One theory is that eating more foods with added sugar can wreak havoc on your gut. Serotonin is an important mood stabilizer, and most of it is produced in the gut.
High carbs or added sugar also cause blood sugar spikes and more insulin, which leads to a roller coaster of metabolic processes that hit the brain the hardest, so you feel tired and lethargic.
Meanwhile, since your brain is already addicted to sugar, your body keeps craving more sweets and junk food, repeating the process over and over again. Ultimately it affects your mood.
Common processed foods include:
- Various biscuits, pastries, snacks
- Various sodas and sugary drinks, including store-bought fruit juices
- frozen food
- Convenience food, such as instant noodles, fast food boxed food
- canned food
- Dried fruit, dried meat
- Poultry and meat are processed by various factories, such as roast chicken, sausage, etc.
Conclusion
Despite all the health hazards of processed food, it is impossible to eliminate it from our daily life, after all, the whole world is now surrounded by this kind of food. What we can do is change our eating habits, eat as much natural and healthy food as possible, or focus on a low-carbohydrate diet.